You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Faith takes us to deep places, to the ruptures in our self-confidence and our lives. Do not settle for spiritual comfort all the time…Darkness is divine also. Faith is not about positive thinking so much as about what kicks in when we are weak, sick, and short of self-confidence. The via positiva never stands alone. The via negativa is always with us on our faith journey as well. ~ Matthew Fox

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

~ David Whyte, Sweet Darkness

There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. ~ Carl Gustav Jung

Gray - quiet and tired and mean.
Picking at a worried seam.
I try to make you mad at me, over the phone.
Red - eyes and fire and signs.
I'm taken by a nursery rhyme.
I wanna make a ray of sunshine,
and never leave home.

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.

The road gets cold, there's no spring in the meadow this year.
And I'm the new chicken, clucking open hearts and ears.
Oh, such a prima donna, sorry for myself.
But green - it is also summer.
And I won't be warm till I'm lying in your arms.

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.

I see it all through a telescope:
It's our suitcase, and a warm coat.
Lying in the back of the blue boat, humming a tune...
(Mmmmmmmm.)

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have...

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.
I've gotta have you.